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Dealers and Shippers of 

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AND ITS 


PRODUCTS. 



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BALTIMORE: 

F. A. Hanzsche, Steam Book and Job Printer, 

No. 166 West Baltimore Street. 

1879. 



















Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1879, 

By JOHN T. KING, M. D., 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, Washington City, D. C 






G9AL AND ITS PRODUCTS. 


Coal is the mainspring of civilization; by it the 
wheels of industry are put in motion and commerce car¬ 
ried on all over the globe. By coal night is converted 
into day, and winter into summer; it is the embodi¬ 
ment of a power more potent than that of fabled genii 
and giants. 

It once composed the tissues of those strange trees 
that lifted their sealed trunks and waved their feath¬ 
ery foliage along the marshy shores of the carbonifer¬ 
ous continent, which no human foot had ever trod, but 
which swarmed with gigantic salamanders, and mail- 
clad fishes that were the monarchs of the lonely 
lakes and seas. So far as man existed, the earth 
was Azoic, and this fact teaches the wisdom and good¬ 
ness of Him who hath in so wonderful a manner, and 
in such inexhaustible quantity stored up in so imper¬ 
ishable a form for uncreated man the fuel of a world 
for ages incalculable by man. 

The Chinese knew of and used coal centuries ago, 
and in the reign of Edward VI., 1552, coal was used 
in France. 

The earliest notice we find of Stone Coal isB. C. 371. 
In 1240 coal was first sent to London. In 1398 Ed¬ 
ward I. published a proclamation against it as a public 
nuisance. New Castle coal was used as fuel more 
than 800 years ago and there is no doubt that the an¬ 
cient Romans and Britons used it. 

Carbon or coal is one of the chief constituents of this 
vast and varied universe. It constitutes a large per¬ 
centage of all vegetable, animal and mineral masses. 
When one sees in the bowels of the earth masses of hard 
black coal or contemplates in it the glowing grate or 
furnace, he can scarcely realize that he is looking 
















4 


COAL AND ITS PRODUCTS. 


upon a substance whose formation dates back millions 
of ages before the human family existed. It was pre¬ 
vious to and during the period of the coal formation 
that reptilian monsters swarmed and reigned su¬ 
preme over both sea and land, huge reptilian Vrj lies 
mounted on paddles were the tyrants of the Atlantic 
sea, and the great Ichthyosaurus laved his colossal 
form in the ancient sea and lacustrine w r aters, and the 
terrible and monstrous Plesiosaurus held undisputed 
sway in the vast aqueous domain of an ancient globe, 
and waged a deadly strife with contemporaneous mon¬ 
sters of the deep. 



(ICTHYOSAURUS.) 


If man had been permitted to view the spectacle of 
these countless numbers of ancient leviathans and ter¬ 
rible serpents of the sea and the equally countless num¬ 
bers of the land mammoths, powerful Dinotheria, Me- 
gatheria, Mylodons and Glyptodons, engaged either in 
sportive pastime or deadly combat, with a sea ensan¬ 
guined and convulsed, and the earth trembling under 
their ponderous tread, he would have had been ap¬ 
palled, even if he had been the most intrepid mariner 
that ever strode the deck of barque in ancient or mod¬ 
ern seas, but when they existed and held their sway, 
it was long, — countless ages ere man appeared in 
Eden, or in any portion of the earth—long before the 
prow of ship cleaved these waters, or canvas was spread 
to waft the commerce of civilized nations. At the pe¬ 
riod of the coal formation upon the land roamed in 
countless numbers, inconceivable by man, theunwieldly 
Dinotherium, corporeally gigantic, with his elephantine 
proboscis and downward curved dual tusks, that served 
as implements, or hugh pickaxes to uproot the deeply 



COAL AND ITS PRODUCTS. 


5 

imbedded roots of ancient jungles and forests of the 
stately Leipodendron, Equisetae and Calamite. 

Contemporaneous was the Mammoth, gigantic and 
Countless in numbers, as were the huge Megatherium, 
and Mylodon, a climbing, herbivorous, gigantic ani¬ 
mal of the character of the “ Sloth,” a fossil specimen of 
which may be viewed and studied in the Smithsonian 
Institution, Washington, and in primaeval morasses, 
jungles and tarns, ponderously stalked the sluggish, mail- 
clad, armored, huge, canopied “Glyptodon,” whose fossil 
remains can also be seen in the department of Paleon¬ 
tology of the Smithsonian Institution. 



(PLESIOSAURUS.) 


Contemporaneous with these huge marine monsters 
and gigantic quadrupedal animals of the land were 
the great reptilian birds, the formidable Dinosaurus, 
Pterodactyl and Archeopteryx, that in mammoth meas¬ 
ure stalked intrepidly and strode the shore sands of 
these ancient lakes and seas. 

It is within the recollection of at present living per¬ 
sons, when coal was first used upon this continent as 
fuel. One hundred and ten years ago, the existence of 
anthracite was first known to the white settlers of Penn¬ 
sylvania, but, in 1684, twenty years after Colonel John 
Campbell laid off the first town lots of Pittsburg, priv- 









6 


COAL AND ITS PRODUCTS, 

ilege was granted by the Penns to mine coal from the 
hill opposite the city. The privilege being granted for 
$30 sterling per lot; one hundred years elapsed, 1784, 
before coal mining began in the vicinity of Pittsburg. 
In 1791, the Mauch Chunck mines were discovered, 
and soon after, the Lehigh mines. In 1806, a load of 
coal was sent to Philadelphia, and upon trial was con¬ 
sidered unmanageable and the enterprising vender was 
arrested and imprisoned for the supposed imposition. 
For a long time there was positive prejudice against 
anthracite and it was during the war of 1812 that the 
“ Black Stones,” as it was called, began to be used in 
stoves for warming houses, but so little was thought 
of it as fuel that only 24 tons of it were used in the 
year 1824, in the city of Philadelphia, and in the six 
following years only 365 tons had been used in that 
city. 

Anthracite coal was discovered in Rhode Island in 
1768, but the coal was not used to any extent until 1808. 



(gl\ttodon.) 


Coal is the production of vegetable matters which 
grew upon the place or locality where it is now found, 
and the process by which it was and is now being con¬ 
verted from woody matter into coal is mainly accounted 
for by two causes—moisture and pressure. 

That coal is a production of vegetation there can be 
no doubt, and a most wonderful vegetation it was, and 
how interesting are the gigantic plants, trees and forests 







COAL AND ITS PRODUCTS. 


7 


of an ancient world that now produce the fuel that 
blazes on every hearth-stone and that cheers and glad¬ 
dens every happy home. You can see in every coal¬ 
mine wonders of nature that charm and fascinate and 
awe with their sublimity; here are found impressions 
of leaves in their most delicate tracery and the stems 
and trunks of trees of gigantic size now extinct upon 
the earth, and as one roams through these subterra¬ 
nean passages and galleries of the coal measures, you 
can see in the roof or rocks vast quantities of the pros¬ 
trate and flattened trunks of trees of gigantic size and 
length, of unknown species. This coal vegetation was 
of a description compared with which anything in our 
day of the same class of vegetation in respect to size 
and quantity fades into insignificance; the exuberant 
growth of our tropical climates is as but the grass of 
the fields as compared with that of the coal era; for 



ARCHEOPTERYX. 

example, the equisetse or horse-tail flags that now grow 
upon the earth measure not more than one-half inch in 



o 


COAL AND ITS PRODUCTS. 


diameter, while those that grew at the period of the 
formation of the coal measures were as much as four¬ 
teen inches. Club-mosses even in our tropics are 
dwarfs, while those of the coal measures were as thick 
as a man’s body and sixty and seventy feet in height. 
A large portion of the vegetation of the coal era is 
composed of ferns of incredible size; measuring 60 feet 
in height, and there we find the stately Leipodendron 
and ornate Sigillaria, the impression upon the bark of 
which reminds one of the sculptor’s art, as distinctly 
impressed as if made by a seal upon wax by the hand 
of man. 



Sea weeds and other marine plants are not found in 
coal, the plants are all of fresh-water species. The 
formation of coal is a demonstrable fact. We can see 
the woody fibre transformed into a dark combustible 
compound that we call peat or lignite. This lignite 
is found in nearly all the states and territories of the 
United States. The principal localities where it is 
found of the best quality is along the lines of the lower 
Pacific and Kansas Pacific Railroad. We then see it 
hardening both by compression and by the slow burn¬ 
ing process in water known as eremacausis. 



FOSSIL FERN OF THE COAL MEASURES. 





COAL AND ITS PRODUCTS. 


9 


But how was this vast amount of vegetable matter 
accumulated, from whence did it come ? At the period 
of the coal formations vast and endless forests of gigan¬ 
tic trees and mammoth ferns covered the earth’s entire 
surface, quickened and stimulated into growth by a fer¬ 
vent sun and an unceasing, almost impenetrable veil of 
moisture. The debris of these endless forests and 
boundless morasses of luxuriant ferns successively fall¬ 
ing year by year through countless eons of ages were 
preserved against decomposition by stagnant water and 
dense atmospheric humidity and in time became peat 
and subsequently coal. The formation of different 
kinds of coal such as anthracite and bituminous with 
all their varieties is due to the different degrees of pro¬ 
gress made in the process of liquefaction and carboni- 



STIGMARIA FLORA OF THE COAL MEASURES. 

























io COAL AND ITS PRODUCTS. 

zation. The chemist can convert vegetable matter into 
coal of all degrees of hardness, possessing all the vari¬ 
ous qualities of that formed by nature, and is able to 
demonstrate that all coal when first formed or in its 
first stage of carbonization is of the bituminous variety 
and that anthracite is the result of igneous action to 
which it was subjected after it became coal; as proof of 
the fact anthracite coal is only found in metamorphic 
rocks and the only coal formed in this character of 
rock is anthracite. 

As before stated, in peat and lignite we see the first 
step in the formation of coal. Peat is bituminous veg¬ 
etation, generally mosses, and other herbaceous plants 
which have accumulated in marshes called peat-bogs ; 
lignite is the product of a similar alteration or metamor- 



SIGILLARIA FLORA OF THE COAL MEASURES. 







COAL AND ITS PRODUCTS. 


ii 


phosis effected in the woody tissue, and from retaining 
to a greater or less degree the form and structure of 
wood receives the name lignite. Peat is a formation 
of the present period, lignite is of an older formation, 
and bituminous coal of still older metamorphosis, and 
where special causes and favorable conditions such as 
the requisite amount of heat prevailed to carry the 
transformation of the peat or bituminous coal a step or 
stage further, anthracite was produced, and when this 
transformation was carried on yet further the coal was 
converted into Plumbago or black lead. 

Under peculiar circumstances nature has departed 
from her usual routine, has directly changed the lignite 
into anthracite,—has ignored the intermediate stage, 
the bituminous, as may be seen near Santa Fe, New 
Mexico and on Oueen Charlotte’s Island, south of 
Alaska. 

If we assume that the average forest of the present 
period requires ioo years to attain its full growth, it 
would require 7,400 years to accumulate the mass of 
coal existing in the 30 feet coal beds of Pennsylvania. 

The thickness of a seam of coal depends on the 
length of time the vegetable materials of which it was 
composed were accumulating, and the fragmentary or 
detached character of the coal fields is undoubtedly 
caused by convulsions which took place long subse¬ 
quent to the formation of the coal beds. Thus have deep 
valleys been formed dividing the coal field or measure, 
leaving sometimes only small patches of coal upon the 
tops of mountains and often a wide area of country 
interposes between the fragments of the same coal 
measures. That the great upheaval of vast mountain 
ranges was long subsequent to the coal formations re¬ 
quires no argument to convince one. Upon the loftiest 
peaks are to be found the coal measures or beds, their 
strata undulating conformably with similar strata on 
distant apices or the escarpment, or the fracture of the 
bed will be upon the mountain side and the correspond¬ 
ing portion deep down in the valley, and often separated 
by miles of intervening country. 


12 


COAL AND ITS PRODUCTS. 


Of the thirty-seven States composing the Union, the 
following contain no coal ofany kind whatever: Maine, 
New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, New York, 
New Jersey, Delaware, South Carolina, Florida, Missis¬ 
sippi, Louisiana, Wisconsin and Minnesota, several 
others not named above contain a little coal, but it is of 
no commercial value. 

There are four great carboniferous coal fields in the 
United States; the first and most important is the Ap¬ 
palachian or Alleghany, 875 miles in length, traversing 
parts of seven States in a northeast and south-west 
direction, and from 30 to 180 miles in width. 

The second great coal field occupies the centre part 
of the state of Michigan. 

The third great coal-field is of enormous dimensions, 
covering two-thirds of the large State of Illinois, the 
western part of Indiana and the western part of Ken¬ 
tucky. 

The fourth great coal field covers a large portion of 
Iowa, an extensive area in Missouri, and a portion of 
Kansas and Nebraska. Another extensive coal deposit 
exists in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. The area 
of the United States is 2,915,203 square miles, and the 
coal area covers one square mile in 10. The entire area 
of the coal fields of the United States is 58,000 square 
miles, viz.: Pennsylvania, 12,774; Maryland, 550; 
Ohio, 10,000; West Virginia, 16,000; Kentucky, 8,983; 
Tennessee, 5,100; Alabama, 5,530, averaging 50,000,000 
tons annually. 

As previously stated the varieties of coal are the 
Anthracite, Bituminous, Lignite and Peat. 


COAL PRODUCING COUNTRIES OF THE GLOBE. 


Belgium.. 

Prussia. 

Austria. 

France. 

Spain. 

England. 

Nova Scotia. 

Chili, Australia,India and China, each.... 
United States. 


900 Square Miles. 
1,800 

1,800 “ “ 
1,800 
3,000 
11,000 
18,000 
28,000 
192,000 










COAL AND ITS PRODUCTS. 


i3 


It is the manifest destiny of America to be the great¬ 
est coal producing country of the world. Pennsylvania 
annually mines on an average 20,000,000 tons of An¬ 
thracite and 15,000,000 tons of Bituminous coal, or 
35,000,000 tons, and Maryland’s annual production is 
on an average 1,650,000 of tons of Bituminous and 
Semi-Bituminous coals. 

Receipts of Coal at Baltimore for the past three years. 


Years. Cumberland, tons. Anthracite, tons. 

1878.1,087,685 301,042 

1877. 966,668 343,936 

1876.1,141,689 263,964 


Anthracite is by far the most important, it is the 
hard coal of America. It is the universal fuel for do¬ 
mestic use in the Eastern and Middle States in prefer¬ 
ence to all other kinds of fuel. It largely consists of 
carbon, from 85 to 93 per cent., its color is jet black, 
the hardest kinds metallic black. It has a bright, 
glossy lustre, and a beautiful iridescent lustre, it is 
harder to kindle than other kinds of coal, has great 
heating power and never leaves coke and but few ashes. 

It does not soil the hands, and from its cleanliness, 
the absence of smoke, soot and dirt is universally 
preferred for domestic use. Its existence was first 
made known to the white settlers of Pennsylvania 
in 1768. It would be difficult to make people believe 
that all the anthracite or hard coal of America of which 
more than 22,000,000 tons are annually mined comes 
from a small locality in the State of Pennsylvania, 
from the five counties of Dauphin, Northumberland, 
Schuylkill, Carbon and Luzerne, that in its area if 
joined together would only form a small county 20 
miles in width by 24 miles in length. 

The great coal fields of Pennsylvania are the 
Schuylkill, 73 miles in length by a mean breadth of 2 
miles, the Shamokin and Mahonoy, 25 miles in length 
by 3 in width, and the Lehigh coal field consisting of 
seven separate basins. 

The Wyoming and Lackawanna is the largest and 
finest of the anthracite coal basins, it is a solid unbroken 
2 





14 


COAL AND ITS PRODUCTS. 


field of more than 50 miles in length with an average 
breadth of 5 miles, and contains 198 square miles, it is 
situated wholly in the county of Luzerne, and is com¬ 
pletely shut in by mountain barriers called the Shawnee 
and Wyoming mountains. The total area of the an¬ 
thracite coal region of Pennsylvania is 472 square 
miles. The coal seams are found as thin as a sheet 
of paper, and of all thicknesses up to the gigantic beds 
on the Lehigh mountain, some of which are more than 



MINING COAL. 


















































































































COAL AND ITS PRODUCTS. 


i5 


50 feet in thickness. The bituminous coal seams are 
usually from 3 to 6 feet in thickness, at Pittsburg they 
are 8 feet, and in the Cumberland region, Md., they are 
14 feet, and in Ohio 12 feet in thickness. 

WORKABLE SEAMS OF COAL. 

The late report of the English Royal Commission 
included all coal seams workable 1 foot in thickness. 
Seams of good coal 22 inches in thickness have been 
worked in Pennsylvania. Miners call from 2 to 3 feet 
of clean coal a workable seam. 

The thickness of the coal is not in itself conclusive 
as to the quantity that can be produced in any given 
area, a 3 feet seam will produce 4,840 tons to the acre 
of land, or every cubic yard of coal is equal to 1 ton, 
but the 4,840 square yards of an acre cannot be en¬ 
tirely mined. In the coal fields of Pennsylvania there 
can be found good bituminous coal, but it is softer 
and having more sulphur in it, is not so valuable as the 
George’s Creek, Cumberland. The latter is harder, 
cleaner and more durable, and has less sulphur, and 
consequently not so destructive to grates and boilers. 
All the coal is not secured on account of the interposi¬ 
tion of a stratum of slate which miners will not pene¬ 
trate, that portion beneath the slate is the most valuable 
coal, containing a larger per cent, of pure bitumen. 
Some coal companies secure the entire contents of the 
mine by compelling the miners to penetrate this stratum 
of slate. 

In the anthracite region the amount of minable coal 
is small in comparison to the whole quantity in the 
ground, and three separate seams of 6 feet each are 
more profitable than one of 18 feet of thickness. The 
loss attending the breaking up of hard coal is 15 to 40 
per cent. These facts indicate the small proportion of 
marketable coal to that deposited in the earth. The 
waste, therefore, in mines and above ground in the 
preparation of coal for market is immense. 

The mining of anthracite coal is done chiefly by 
blasting, that of bituminous coal by cutting beneath the 


16 COAL AND ITS PRODUCTS. 

coal seam and along- the sides of the chamber as far as 

the miner can reach with his pike, then by driving 

wedges along the top the mass of coal is thrown down. 

Powder is also occasionally used. 

* 

As before stated all kinds of coal must concede to 
anthracite for house-hold use, on account of its cleanli¬ 
ness, freedom from smoke, soot and flame. 

SEMI-BITUMINOUS COAL. 

By the term semi-bituminous coal is meant coal that 
contains more largely than anthracite the gases, oxy¬ 
gen, hydrogen and nitrogen, and they give it a more 
flaming character in burning; it burns like bituminous, 
but contains no true bitumen. 

BITUMINOUS COAL. 

Is the kind which yields coke and combustible gases, 
and not less than 70 nor more than 84 per cent, of car¬ 
bon ; it is decidedly dirty, cannot be touched without 
soiling the hands and it is the great gas-coal. The great 
bituminous and semi-bituminous coal regions east of the 
Alleghanies are the Blossburg, Mclntire, Towanda, An¬ 
trim, Johnstown and Broad Top in the State of Penn¬ 
sylvania, and the Cumberland George’s Creek coal 
mines in Alleghany county, Maryland. 

The Cumberland coal region is one of the most im¬ 
portant of the bituminous coal regions of America. 
The coal has a world-wide fame as an iron-making and 
steam-producing coal. Every ocean steamer uses it, 
except those of the United States navy which all burn 
anthracite on account of the absence of smoke, which 
would betray their vicinity in the night to an enemy. 

In the Cumberland coal bed, the coal is fourteen feet 
in thickness, the thickest of any in America. It is 
thirty miles in length, and between four and five miles 
in width, or one hundred and twenty-seven square miles. 
Twenty-three square miles of this region has not been 
mined, and upon reasonable data, the calculation has 
been made that this area of 23 square miles can yield 


COAL AND ITS PRODUCTS. 


i7 

75>7°3>4 10 tons of coal, and will take thirty-three years 
to exhaust. 

The true bituminous coals are eminently preferable 
for gas manufacture, for blacksmithing, puddling, fires 
in rolling mills, and for generating steam. Its value is 
due to its great heating power, and the facility of dif¬ 
fusing the flame that accompanies its combustion over 
a large surface, and for its coke-producing qualities. 

Among the Cumberland Coal Companies, are some 
who specially own mines in George’s Creek, the coal of 
which is acknowledged by every consumer to be supe¬ 
rior to any other coal of this region. Among the com¬ 
panies that exclusively mine their coal on George’s 
Creek, are the Potomac, Barton Mines, George’s Creek 
Coal and Iron Co., Maryland and Swanton Coal Co. 


Laboratory of the School of Mines, Columbia College, corner 
49th Street, and 4th Avenue. 

New York, September 29,1875. 

CERTIFICATE OF ANALYSIS. 


Sir: —The sample of Bituminous Coal, from Cumberland, 
Md., (Potomac Mines) submitted to me for examination contains. 4 

HEATING POWER. 

By Comparison. 

[Parts Lead reduced 
by one part of fuel.] 

Pure Carbon. Coal. 
34.56 83.83 

or as 

100 is to 97.88. 
Respectfully, your obedient servant, 

C.<F. CHANDLER, Pn. D., 
Professor of Analytical and Applied Chemistry t 

To Jas. S. Magkie, Esq. 


SAMPLE COAL 
YIELDED. 

Elements Percentage 

Water. 0.75 

Gases.18.98 

Coke............... /£>.23 

Sulphur......0.74 

Ash. .4.30 


100.00 


ASH YIELDED. 
Elements Percentage 


Silica.37.2 L 

Oxide of Iron and 

Alumina.6.059 

Lime. 0.43 

Magnesia. 1.64 

Loss. 0.13 


100.00 


















COAL AND ITS PRODUCTS. 


iK 


Ittitfd States of §uumca. 



State of Mew York, City and County of New York, SS. 

By this public Instrument be it known , to 

all whom the same doth or may in anywise concern, that I, 
Theodore Kilter, a Notary Public, of the State of 
New York, by Tetters Pateni, under the Kreat Neal 
of the said State, duly commissioned and sworn, dwelling in 
the City of New York, Do hereby Certify, That I am familiar 
with the signature of C. F. Chandler, Ph. D., Professor 
of Analytical and Applied Chemistry, of Columbia College, 
New York, which is subscribed to the annexed Certificate of 
Analysis, and that the said signature is genuine. 

And I further Cerl i fy, that the School of Miaies” 
of Coin inhia College, New York, at which the an¬ 
nexed Analysis was made, is the leading institution in Physi¬ 
cal Science in this country. That B>r. C. F. Chandler, 
whose signature is affixed thereto, is known as the distinguished 
Professor of Analytical Chemistry in that Col¬ 
lege, and full faith and credit should be given to his report. 

In Testimony Whereof, I, the said Notary Public, 
have subscribed my name and caused my Notarial Seal of 
Office to be hereunto affixed, at my office, No. 29 ^roadway, in 
the City of New Y'ork, the second day of October, in the year 
of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-five. 

THEODORE RITTER, 

Notary Public , Neic York. 

The great gas-producing, coal is obtained in Penn¬ 
sylvania and West Virginia ; especially is the Youghiog- 
heny Gas Coal notoriously rich in gaseous elements of 
high illuminating richness and power. Appended is a 
circular with analysis and certificates showing this Gas 
Coal to be estimated above all others by Gas Companies. 


COAL AND ITS PRODUCTS. 19 

The Salisbury & Baltimore Railroad & Coal Co,, 

SHIPPERS OF THE CELEBRATED 

YOUGHIOGHENY GAS COAL 


We would respectfully call the attention of purchasers to 
this justly celebrated Coal, which is conceded by all 

Gas Companies that have used it to excel all other American 
Gas Coals. We have such arrangements with transporting 
companies that buyers can be furnished at reasonable prices 
and at shortest notice. 

The mines are situated on the Youghiogheny River, in 
the immediate vicinity of the mines recently worked by Tlios. 
Moore, of Pittsburgh, quality of the Coal identical. We re¬ 
commend the Coal equal to the best produced from the Penn 
and Westmoreland Coal lands, and superior to most of the Coal 
mined thereabouts—hence purchasers can rely on this Coal giv¬ 
ing entire satisfaction. 

By analysis it is found that Youghiogheny Gas Coal per ton 
will produce 10,280 cubic feet; illuminating power 17.13 can¬ 
dles; it is remarkably free from sulphur, and yields a very 
small percentage of ash. If yield of Gas is restricted to 9,500 
cubic feet the illuminating power is equal to 19.87 candles. 

The yield of Coke produced from this Coal is excellent, 
yielding 42 Bushels per ton and weighs 1,500 pounds. 

JOHN ANSPACH, President. 

S. M. HAMILTON ci CO., 

GENERAL AGENTS, 

No. 8 South Gay Street, Baltimore. 

Agent for Boston and N ew England States, 

CHAS. WANNEMACHER, 

No. 4 Central St., Boston, Mass. 


[Copy.] Office of the Boston Gas Light Company, 

24 West Street, Nov. 7, 1878. 

Charles Wannemacher, Esq., 

Agent for the Salisbury and Balto. Railroad and Coal Company, 

Dear Sir :—The cargo of Youghiogheny Gas Coal by the 
Emma L. Cottingham was duly received and passed into con- 






20 


COAL AND ITS PRODUCTS. 


sumption. The quality of the Coal is substantially the same as 
the other first-class Yougliiogheny Gas Coal. 

Yours truly, 

[Signed] W. W. Gkeeenough, Treas. 

Grahamite was chiefly used by gas-light companies 
for improving the gas ; it is remarkably free from sul¬ 
phur and ash, and produces excellent coke; in photo¬ 
metric value it is equal to 32 candles. 

ASPHALTUM. 

Asphalt is a natural mineral bitumen, and is composed 
of asphaltene and petrolene. In nature it is found com¬ 
bined with carbonate of lime and other mineral sub¬ 
stances. It fuses only at about 400 degrees Fahren¬ 
heit, .and maintains its hardness under a constant heat 
of 150 degrees Fahrenheit. This substance was form¬ 
erly obtained almost solely from the neighborhood ol 
the Dead Sea, but within five years, the great lake ol 
asphalt in the Island of Trinidad has been used as a 
source of supply both for the United States and 
Europe. This lake is one of the most remarkable 
natural curiosities in the world, and its existence has 
never been satisfactorily explained. It is circular in 
shape, and covers about 114 acres. Its depth is un¬ 
known, although it is estimated to be 800 feet. 

The asphaltum constantly bubbles up in the centre, 
and flows outward. On the outer hedges it hardens, 
and will sustain carts and teams 200 or 300 feet from 
the shore. It is cut out in blocks, refined by heat, and 
finds its way to market molded into barrels. For 
paving city streets, asphalt is fast coming into general 
use in Europe. In Paris, all the boulevards and other 
principal streets are paved with it, and in London no 
other material is now allowed to be used for paving 
purposes. 

COMBUSTION OF COAL. 

There is scarcely anything that is so much wasted as 
fuel. Every other mode of obtaining power has proved 
to be more costly than the use of steam from the com- 


COAL AND ITS PRODUCTS. 


21 


bustion of coal, and the improvements of the methods 
ol using it so as to obtain a greater degree of power 
from the fuel used is therefore one of the most impor¬ 
tant subjects which can engage the attention of a man¬ 
ufacturing and commercial people. 

The burning of coal is strictly a chemical process. It 
is the chemical union of the oxygen ol the air with the 
carbon of the coal accompanied with light and heat. 
Coal consists of carbon and hydrogen. They are its 
only valuable constituents; it contains others but they 
are of no value; in its combustion a definite amount of 
oxygen must be furnished for a definite quantity of hy¬ 
drogen, and for a fixed quantity of carbon. Here there 
are those elements for the production of heat. Two 
of them, carbon and hydrogen, cost money, while nature 
freely furnishes the oxygen, yet strange to say, there is 
scarcely a coal fire where a large portion of the two ex¬ 
pensive elements are not wasted for the want of the suf¬ 
ficient supply of the third “oxygen” which costs nothing. 
Great improvements have been made in lamps for the 
proper admission of air, thus improving combustion. 
The same should be done for the stove. When the 
draft of a stove or furnace is closed, or when the fire is 
covered with ashes, the fire is said to be smothered. For 
carbon and hydrogen to be combustible, air should 
be freely furnished, all these elements should be brought 
together in exactly the proper proportions. If the sup¬ 
ply of oxygen is insufficient the combustion is imper¬ 
fect, and consequently a great loss of heat or a great 
waste of the heating power of the fuel. Neither the 
carbon and hydrogen of the coal and the oxygen of the 
air unite readily in mass, if they did an open coal fire 
would be preferable. They only unite by atoms or 
particle by particle in definite proportions. 

When fresh coal is thrown upon a fire the tempera¬ 
ture decreases and if under a boiler the steam goes 
down for the reason that the freshly added coal absorbs 
a given amount of caloric or heat to bring it up to 
the point of combustion. 

The common kerosene and argand lamp gives more 
light than a candle because the air and carbon and hy- 


22 


COAL AND ITS PRODUCTS. 


drogen of the oil unite particle by particle. This 
should be the case with a stove, grate or furnace, the 
air should be introduced in small jets or quantities. 
When perfect combustion takes place there will be no 
soot or smoke produced ; if too much or too little air is 
supplied, soot and smoke will result. In all furnaces and 
stoves heat is lost by opening the doors and putting on 
fresh coal. 

PETROLEUM OR MINERAL OIL. 

What is petroleum or mineral oil ? It is like coal, 
slow maceration of plants, with this difference, in the 
formation of coal the plants which entered into its com¬ 
position were woody or fibrous. The plants which 
concurred to the formation of Petroleum were sea-weeds 
or marine plants. They have no wood in their tissue. 
It is exclusively cellular and the pure bitumen has been 
preserved in subterranean cavities. The conditions 
favorable to an exuberance of vegetation existed long 
before the carboniferous epochs and the result was an 
immense marine vegetation, and vast reservoirs of coal 
oil. 

This Petroleum or Rock Oil is found in many parts 
of the word, job saw rivers of oil flowing from the 
rocks. It was known more than 2,000 years ago to the 
Greeks and Romans. For centuries the coal oil wells 
and springs oflndia have supplied the inhabitants with 
illuminating oil. The same oil is used by the dwellers 
upon the borders of the Caspian Sea and the entire 
population of Persia. For more than 200 years Italy 
lias used coal oil, and it is found in many islands of the 
sea. Cuba and Trinidad produce it. 

Analysis shows that Rock Oil is nearly identical with 
the fluids distilled from bituminous coal. In the United 
.States Petroleum is found in great profusion in Pennsyl¬ 
vania, New York, (hhio,Virginia and Kentucky. Rock 
Oil was known from a remote period to the Indians, 
who used it for medicinal purposes. Under the names 
of Genesee Oil and Seneca Oil it was for a long time, and 
yetis, a popular and efficacious remedy for rheumatism. 
Previous to 1845 no attempt was made to procure oil 


COAL AND ITS PRODUCTS. 


23 


in any quantity, and what was produced was used almost 
entirely for medicinal purposes. In 1845 the great oil 
fever broke out and the excitement resulting from it is 
fresh in the memory of many. In i860 more than 200 
wells were sunk in the vicinity of Oil Creek. Immense 
fortunes were made and lost. Oil refineries sprang up 
in every city and such a gigantic industry did it become 
that from the exportation of one andone-half millions 
of gallons in i860, in 1868 it had reached ninety-nine 
millions of gallons, and in 1870 the export was one 
hundred and forty-one millions gallons. 

The aggregate receipts of Refined and Crude at Bal¬ 
timore for the past year was 879,605 barrels, against 
1,094,952 barrels in 1877. Of this decrease 206,936 
barrels were per the Balto. & Ohio road, and 8,411 per 
the Northern Central. The total exports of petroleum 
from the United States for the year amount to 325 
millions of gallons against 331 millions in 1877. New 
York fell off compared with the previous year about 12 
millions; Baltimore upwards of 7 millions, whilst Phil¬ 
adelphia shows again of 26 millions. 

Coal or carbon as is-well known is the producer of 
our illuminating gas. It is within the recollection of 
present living persons when gas was first used. When 
not quite sixty years ago it was determined to light 
the streets of London with gas, it was looked upon as 
Utopian, even by scientific men, even including the 
famous chemist, .Sir Humphrey Davy, and a few years 
later when the Houses of Parliament were about to be 
lighted by gas, the members were so perturbed on ac¬ 
count of the supposed intense heat that the gas pipes 
would be subjected to, that they insisted upon having 
them laid several feet distant from the walls of the 
building, so as to prevent any injury to the build¬ 
ing. The City of Baltimore was the first city on the 
American continent lighted by gas. 

Coal is the producer of yet another set of most im¬ 
portant and valuable substances or products. Previous 
to being in a condition for illuminating purposes, gas 
is deprived of a variety of so-called impurities. The 
most important of these is Coal Tar. This substance, 


24 


COAL AND ITS PRODUCTS. 


so repulsive in odor, and defiling to the touch, was for 
a long time totally unprofitable, and was considered a 
nuisance by gas companies, has now arisen to the 
highest commercial and artistic importance on account 
of those valuable, unrivalled and astonishingly beautiful 
colors or dyes it yields, known as Analine, Anthracene 
and Alazarine. 

These magnificent dyes have influenced and directed 
the fashion and taste of the entire globe, and have 
supplanted one of the most ancient, fast and important 
colors heretofore known, and have had an effect upon 
agriculture and the revenue of two continents. The 
Madder plant once so widely cultivated for its color¬ 
ing and cultivated for centuries as a source of national 
wealth for several nations has had to yield to the bril¬ 
liant and repulsive coal tar of the gas house. In these 
brilliant dyes obtained from the nauseous coal tar we 
see petrified, enshrined and preserved countless ages 
before man’s creation, the virgin, most brilliant and re¬ 
splendent rays of a newly created sun. In them we be¬ 
hold the brilliant sunbeams that fell upon an unpeo¬ 
pled world, that were wholly*absorbed by the endless 
forests and rank vegetation that at that period was 
earth’s universal garniture. 


COAL AND ITS PRODUCTS. 


25 


ESTABLISHED 1848. 

S.M.HAMILTON&Co. 


Miners, Shippers, Dealers and Manufacturers' Agents, 



Cumberland & Hydraulic Cement, 


Importers of 

(KNIGHT, BEVAN & STURGE’S) English PORTLAND CEMENT. 

George's Creek Cumberland Coal, 

Guaranteed of Best Quality. 

Sole Agents Here for the Potomac and Barton Mines. 

Unsurpassed for all Steam, Blacksmith and Rolling Mill 
purposes, received daily at our shipping wharf, in cars, direct 
from mine, without rehandling. (George’s Creek Coal when 
shipped to Alexandria and Georgetown, occasions more hand¬ 
ling before it reaches said shipping points, so the Coal is 
necessarily finer and in less marketable condition). 

Owning unsurpassed wharf facilities, with sufficient draft 
of water to load vessels drawing 22 feet, we are prepared to 
fill orders with despatch. 

HtSpLowest quotations given for all kinds of Antlira- 
citc, Bituminous and Gas Coals, also, all kinds 
of Iron, including Hoop Iron and Nails. 

References.— J. Alex. Sh river, (Agent Phila. and N. Y. Line of 
Steamers;) Abbott Iron Co., Baltimore; J. L. Farmer, Esq., (Agent 
Allan Steamers), Portland, Me. 

YOUGHIOGHENY GAS COAL, 

Salisbury and Baliimore Railroad and Coal Co. 

S. M. Hamilton & Co., • 

SOLE AGENTS HERE. 

We have such arrangements with transporting companies 
that buyers can be furnished at reasonable prices and at the 
shortest notice. 

The mines are situated on the Youghiogheny River, in the 
immediate vicinity of the mines recently worked by Thomas 
Moore, and the Penn and Westmoreland Coal lands, aud su¬ 
perior to most of the Coal mined thereabouts—hence pur¬ 
chasers can rely on this Coal giving entire satisfaction. 

Reference.—To all Gas Companies having used it. 

Clay Gas Retorts, Retort Settings, Tile, Fire-Brick, $c., 

(Gardner Bros.* Manufacture.), 

S- IVT. HAMILTON - &o CO., 

SOLE AGENTS HERE. 


26 


COAL AND ITS PRODUCTS. 


Manufactured from the celebrated Mt. Savage Fire Clay. 
Goods from this manufactory have an enviable reputation 
among the leading Iron and Gas Manufacturing Companies. 

We are prepared to make Tenders in large or small 
quantities, and deliver goods on shortest notice, compatible 
with best quality of work. Plans of setting, estimates and any 
other information cheerfully given. 

Constantly on hand ill ell Fire-Brick. Especial 
attention paid to shipment of Fire Flay, crude, ground or 
calcined. 

References.— Cleveland Rolling Mill, Cleveland, Ohio; Wash- 
ton Gas Co., Washington, D. C\; St. John’s Gas Co., St. John’s, N. B. 

English Portland Cement. 

(KNIGHT, BEVAN & STURGE.) 

Of this Cement little need -be said, it having a world wide reputa¬ 
tion as the best Artificial Cement manufactured. 

Having facilities of obtaining it at lowest rates of freight 
from Europe, our Cost of direct importation enables us to favor¬ 
ably compete in price with New York and Philadelphia Impor¬ 
ters. 

CUMBERLAND HYDRAULIC CEMENT, 

s. j±a:. ihc a.milI’oit, 

SORE AGENT HERE. 

Manufactured at Cumberland, Maryland, and guaranteed 
unsurpassed by any American production, for all kinds of 
masonry where water is to be restrained, for foundations in wet 
or damp places, linings for gasometer and other tanks, and 
grouting for warehouses, &c. 

F. C. Trautwine, C. E., shows in his “ Civil Engineers’ 
Pocket Book” that Cumberland Cement stands at the 
head of American Cements. 

ROSENDALE CEMENT. (Hoffman Brand.) 

Stands the highest of Rosendale Cements. 

s. :Lv£. dc co., 

SORE AGENTS II ERE. 

References to eortland, Cumberland and Rosemlale 
foments. —Jno. E. Marshal, Esq., Supt. of Construction Safe De¬ 
posit Co., and Johns Hopkins’ Hospital, (now under construction.) 
John J. Purcell, Esq., Supt. of Construction City Hall, Baltimore. 

B. H. Latrobe, C. E. B. & O. R. R. Co. 

Messrs. S. If. & J. F. Adams, Builders, Baltimore. 

- a »- 

Head Office— 8 S. Gay SI. Post-Office Box —857. 
Shipping Wharves— Locust Point. 
Warehouse— Corn pa* Fee and Howard Sts. 
BALTIMORE. 

Reference.— J. S. Norris. Esq., President First National Bank of 
Balto.; J.S. Gillman, Esq., Pres’t Second National Bank of Balto. 





































